Vandalism, fires blamed for broadband outages in Colorado

DENVER (KDVR) — On Sunday, Denver-area broadband customers from multiple companies experienced outages that the companies blamed on fires and vandalism.

Chris Schroll lives in Parker and is impressed. His service was restored but he received an email from BAM Broadband saying in part:

“We received more information regarding the damage from our carrier and wanted to share it with you. It was stated that the cause of the outage was vandalism. “Manholes were randomly set on fire throughout the state for several days, and this was repeated last night along I-225.”

Aurora Fire Rescue said its crews responded to a grass fire near I-225 and Alameda at 1 a.m. Sunday. The fire started in a communications vault and the cause is under investigation.

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A CDOT representative said fiber outage affected 15 roadside Intelligent Transportation Systems devices. When CDOT responded to the manhole where the cables communicating with these devices were located, there was no active fire, but it was understood that the damage was caused by a fire that melted the fiber cables.

This was worrying for Schroll. “I think it just shows the vulnerability of our regular commercial fiber and commercial internet access to just regular communities,” he said.

A similar email was received by Maverix Broadband customers. He showed a picture of some of the damage caused by acts of vandalism.

Part of the email said:

“…The infrastructure of our dark fiber carrier, running from our Denver data center to Aurora, was the victim of an arson attack. This attack not only affected Maverix’s network, but also affected hundreds of other carriers, causing widespread service outages. This type of incident is highly unusual in our industry and we are working closely with our carriers and law enforcement to address the matter as quickly as possible. Officials confirmed that Colorado’s fiber infrastructure has been subject to targeted attacks by these individuals for nearly two weeks. “Multiple organizations, including law enforcement, CDOT, and other agencies, are actively investigating and following up on leads related to these incidents, which have resulted in millions of dollars in damages across the state.”

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